Many businesses have faced immense struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no doubt that restaurants are among the worst hit. To combat the spread of this infectious disease, people, businesses, and industries around the globe have had to adhere to tough lockdown and travel restrictions.
The above restrictions directly affect businesses in the food service industry and have led to many restaurants folding, and those left, struggling to keep the lights turned on. In the US alone, over 110,000 restaurants have closed due to the pandemic. Many governments have tried to help with subsidies and other financial initiatives, but in troubled times, even these can only help so much.
Despite all that, some restaurants have found ways to survive and even prosper during the pandemic. Not able to serve nearly as many walk-ins, restaurants have instead turned to online sales to make ends meet.
If you run or own a restaurant, and want advice on how to help it survive the COVID-19 pandemic, the following tips should give you some pointers on doing just that.
Set up an Online Ordering System Customers Can Use to Order
You all know the old proverb, ”If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”. As a restaurant owner, has this ever been more relevant? Your business is suffering and will continue to suffer because of lockdown restrictions, social distancing, and having to serve customers at reduced capacity.
Restrictions mean you will see fewer customers inside your restaurant, meaning you have to find a way to bring your menu to them instead! A great way to do this is to implement an online ordering system on your website. This is not as difficult as it may seem either, as website builders such as Wix already have website templates designed specifically for restaurants such as yours.
You can list your full menu on your website, accept orders 24/7, and give customers the option of picking up their orders or waiting for you to deliver. You can even integrate payment solutions into your site so customers can pay in advance.
Optimise Your Website to Drive Online Orders
It is one thing having a website in place that can accept online orders, but it is another if potential customers cannot find it. A hungry customer that cannot find your restaurant will order online at another restaurant they can find. That’s why SEO is so important. Your restaurant needs to be as visible as possible in the search rankings, particularly organic local rankings. This is more important than ever too, as competitors will also double up on their efforts.
If you use Wix for your restaurant website, you already have access to some valuable tools to help you out. Your site has the Wix SEO Toolset built into it which gives you access to some fantastic tools that can help with your onsite optimisation, search engine optimisation, and analytics. You can use it to optimise the meta description, titles, tags, URL slugs, and more on each of your website’s pages.
If you don’t use Wix, chances are the website builder you use will also provide SEO tools, so make sure to take advantage of them!
A well-optimised website has the core SEO foundations needed to compete for better organic search positions.
Get Creative with Your Online Marketing Strategies
While attracting new customers is hugely important for any business, keeping hold of those already loyal is just as important. You need to stay relevant and at the forefront of their minds the next time they decide to order some food.
Using social media campaigns, email marketing, or paid ads on social media are great ways to interact with your target audience on a personal level. However, it is important to show some creativity in this area. Churning out posts and emails for little reason will annoy. Instead, use them to offer something that will engage your customers.
You could create email campaigns offering discounts to people stuck working from home in your neighbourhood. Or perhaps you could run a social media promotion with your followers such as handing out gift vouchers to those posting interesting pics involving your food.
The Takeaway
Times are hard for businesses, and especially restaurants and retail businesses which rely on walk-in customers. However, if the pandemic has shown us anything, it is that life carries on and we just have to find different ways to get things done. Thankfully, the internet gives us a way to offset offline business losses with online revenues.
By increasing your restaurant’s online presence, developing digital marketing strategies, and simply providing a platform for your customers to use, it stands a far better chance of surviving the pandemic. Plus, once this is all over with, the work you have put in during the pandemic will leave your restaurant with a much stronger online presence. That combined with the return to normal of your offline business thanks to the loosening of COVID restrictions, should ensure your restaurant is better placed to continue its growth.